Everything historically wrong with Anastasia (1997)

[@AgusSkywalker]

I saw someone describing this movie as "this is a portrayal of Anastasia as realistic as a movie about Anne Frank moving to New Orleans and opening a restaurant".

[@matheussanthiago9685]

that's one way to put it

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Very apt description haha

[@ФедяКрюков-в6ь]

Well, if Anne Frank's father was responsible for deaths of thousands, and Anne Frank herself could become a banner for a terrorist counter-revolutionary movement, that description would be true

[@jsquire1331]

to be fair, I'd watch that movie

[@MarkFilipAnthony]

If the theme of the film was about Anne frank reflecting upon ww2 and the holocaust as an adult, as an alternative history story, I would be totally on board. Could be a story of her famous due to her diary, but her worries that her fame of survival overshadows the whole point of the issue: letting humanity perform genocide. A bit like how the story about titanic has become a parody of itself, where the fiction overshadows the real tragedy.

[@ToaArcan]

You mean Rasputin _wasn't_ a revolutionary undead wizard with an effeminate talking bat as his companion?

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Bolshevik Anastasia would be a way cooler alternate history retelling!! And yeah totally, there's absolutely shortages and lines under capitalism, it was definitely not something unique to the USSR lol. The unique thing about the USSR was that nearly every store was set up so you'd have to wait in line to acquire the goods that you were looking to purchase without browsing around the store and picking up the goods yourself first like in western stores. Like, the picking out of the goods and the waiting in line to check out were combined into one step on purpose to ensure people didn't take more than their fair share, but it honestly sounds like it was terrible haha. Probably nice for socializing and getting to know people in your neighborhood, but unnecessarily time consuming. It's also very telling that it's so many people's least favorite thing about the USSR, and it's kinda funny to me given that we hear how the USSR was soooo repressive, meanwhile actual former Soviet people are like, "yeah I really hated waiting in line for stuff."

[@giorgilobjanidze5667]

​@@revolutionaryth0t the "waiting in bread lines" was a thing only after the perestroyka and thus it became harder to aquire everything in soviet republics which before were very dependant on eachother. Also most people didnt eat as much at home due to the how cheap and plentiful outside eatieries were

[@bewilderbeastie8899]

@@giorgilobjanidze5667 Yeah workers' canteens were such a common thing that most people ate at them. They used to be common in broader Europe too, even beyond the Iron Curtain. Capitalism did its fucking best to quash them.

[@ElizabethMcCormick-s2n]

And he DEFINITELY wasn't having sex with the Tsarina!

[@alxsblv6164]

@@ElizabethMcCormick-s2n ra-ra-rasputin lover of the Russian queen...

[@Kiraya]

i feel like fake anastasia naming her dog "fart" is a plus, she's just like me fr

[@matheussanthiago9685]

she was the last quirky princess that worked and you can quote me on that

[@Rio-chii]

In the Russian dub, they translated the dog's name to Pushok which means "fluffball"

[@firemangan]

Not that far of from the real Anastasia, she was known to be a goofball and a tomboy, so it wouldn’t be a shock she’d name a pet that 😂

[@Somajsibere]

Btw, a little misconception, when talking about life expectancy in historical times, when you see a life expectancy of 30 years in medieval europe, or even in Russia in the early 1900s it doesent mean people were actually dying of old age at 30. What it usually means that there was a lot of child mortality, usually at childbirth due to poor medical conditions, so a lot of people were dying at age 0, and it was dragging the average down. Most people that lived past that age still got to like 60 years old before dying.

[@giorgilobjanidze5667]

While that is true we must also not forget that russia was one of the poorest and most underdeveloped areas in europe (yes even st.petersburg and moscow) beyond just industrial undeedevelopment there were famines and unequal land distributions leading to even more famins aswell as nearly no medical development anywhere

[@Somajsibere]

@@giorgilobjanidze5667 I agree. Russian Empire sucked, and its clear why there was a need for the communists to take over. I was pointing this out because its a misconception I have seen in other places as well, especially in regards to medieval history , and I felt it needed correcting.

[@tesnacloud]

I feel the need to point out that most life expectancy studies take into account child mortality rates in some way, and separate infant or child deaths from how long a person could expect to live after a certain age. This was caused by some form of danger to children specifically, be that widespread illness or malnutrition or something else.

[@Whanevs]

​@@giorgilobjanidze5667lets not forget all the wars including ww1, 30 years life expectancy (if you are man) is not such an exageration.

[@Somajsibere]

@@tesnacloud alright, i didn t know that. Thanks for the info

[@lanterns3018]

This is practically a fairytale that for some god-forsaken reason is set in early 1900s Russia "Once upon a time, in a prosperous land, there was a kind and gentle king. The kingdom fell into ruins when the evil sorcerer attacked. The king was killed, and the kingdom fell into ruins." "We should set this in Russia, with Rasputin as the sorcerer and the Tsar as the kind and gentle king" "... that's a brilliant idea!"

[@LeadrynMcKrotch]

I like how common it seems to be for people to picture a room with some random group of middle aged business men whenever a lame idea is presented to the public.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

Well would it have been better if a couple of foreigners come in and lead a revolution that sets up one of the worst regimes in Russian history? Which by itself is impressive because Russia has had a lot of questionable leadership in its history.

[@felipe21279]

​​@@mrbigglezworth42 "a couple of foreigners" lmao If there was no Lenin or Stalin or Trotsky or anyone else the russian revolution would happen anyways. It happened because it was bound to happen and needed to happen, just like the cuban, haitian, american or french revolutions.

[@Necro352]

​@@mrbigglezworth42industrializing in 30 years, really horrific

[@mrbigglezworth42]

@@Necro352 It really, really was. But you seem like you don't care about death camps too much.

[@SamwiseOutdoors]

I loved the movie's assertion that dark magic caused the first Russian Revolution and not decades of tsarist incompetence, the demands of WWI, and the general unrest caused by Nicholas II's hamfisted attempts to flex his authority.

[@matheussanthiago9685]

and Lenin's +20 charisma plus +20 ideology put to work right at the eye of the hurricane

[@mandalorian_guy]

It's the equivalent of George Washington pulling a flintlock pistol from a stone and granting him the ability to rule the American Colonies or Simon Bolivar using a magic genie wish to create Gran Columbia only for the wish to backfire because he can't change free will.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

@@matheussanthiago9685 Don't forget his -20 statecraft and -20 empathy. Dude was more than fine with stirring up poor peasants to murder each other so long as it kept the Soviets in power.

[@bleaaarghh]

@@mrbigglezworth42cope and seethe

[@ChileanWagner.777]

The Simon Bolivar part made me laugh!!!😂😂😂😂

[@Ibis_W0lfie]

I'm autistic and my hyperfixation is the russian revolution and I wanna add that they forgot to include the tsar's cool dragon tattoo on his forearm

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Wow that's a very fun fact, probably the coolest thing about him tbh

[@arcihungbycraneonfire]

@@revolutionaryth0t nicho was born for the boys, never for monarchy 😔

[@CCMapping]

Also, the Russian civil war had many obscure factions like Green Ukraine in Vladivostok, the Mountainous Republic, and even a military dictatorship on the small island of Naissar.

[@pc_suffering6941]

​@@CCMappingehh Green Ukraine was never realized And as for the last one... WHAT?! A tiny island? Care to elaborate?

[@vanesamartin6253]

When we were learning about the Russian Revolution in class, the first thing our teacher did was ask if there was anyone who had seen the movie and liked it. A super excited girl answered yes and the teacher: Well, it's a lie. They all died. There is almost no truth in that movie. And then she laughed. Thank you for reminding me of that moment

[@VladK95]

What a based teacher! (No cap tho, I truly find the evil inspiring)

[@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em]

​@@VladK95 this video has certain historical problems as well, as one of the video's main arguments is that the working class had no reason to disagree or dislike the USSR, but this isnt't true as although there were improvements in the quality of life in comparison to the Empire, there was a lot of social inequality in the USSR. Sovietology expert Mervyn Matthews's 1978 study "Privilege in the Soviet Union" made clear that while the people were given "basics" like bread and meat in the soviet shops, 8 percent of soviet shops accepted "preliminary orders" by members of the nomenklatura and this preliminary orders included food like fillet steaks, lobster and black caviar, which were directly sent to the official's doors twice weekly. The healthcare system in the USSR also had a giant quality gap, something that was made clear by poet and writer Korney Chukovsky, who was treated in a Party Hospital in 1965: "the families of the central committee built for themselves a paradise, all while people in other hospital beds were starving, dirty and without the right drugs". There's also the fact that under stalinism, workers lost many benefits thay were given to them at the beggining of the revolution, like their right to participate in the functioning of the enterprise and conditions deteriorated as shock work, which meant that workers had to work past regular hours, was introduced alongside central planning and after ww2 small theft became illegal among workers. The video also mentioned abortion, but forgot to mention that, although legalized in 1920, during the Stalin era, abortion was seen in a bad light, as in the congress of Kiev in 1932 abortion was criticized for decreasing the country's birth rate and natalist policies were introduced.

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

​@@RodrigoGarcia-ze5emSovietology... So... you mean the American academic study of the Soviet economy that was created to help parry the strategic challenge of the USSR and received lifetime government support for reasons of national security. What's next? Quoting writings of Nazi generals to prove that USSR used horde charge tactics to defeat Germans on the eastern front? Sovietology was and is a complete bs that was discredited some time ago.

[@Andrey_Gysev]

​​@@RodrigoGarcia-ze5emumm, no. My mother ate black caviar while living in literal village, lol. And concept of "privilege black caviar" is a modern concept when fish that make it is endangered. In soviet times it wasnt endangered until 80s. And your 70s research is cool, but video is talking about 20-30s... And wdym "in stalinist era workers lost benefits of revolution", you understand that lenin died in 1924 and stalin came in power after him and literally made those benefits, continuing work of lenin?

[@raven_g6667]

Pretty brutally too. I'm not gonna make any excuses for the revolutionary's who did it either. It's not something that can be accurately judged as good or bad. Ultimately, after the end of Tsarist Russia, serfdom ended, the pogroms ended, the pointless wars stopped (for a while), food distribution and life expectancy increased, ppls lives overall improved drastically after the Romanovs died.

[@Cadmann778]

I have to believe one of those weird Russian monarchist groups or someone running PR for their nobility ancestor was involved in producing or writing this film. Its similar to me how you'd hear some American Cubans talk about pre-revolution Cuba as a paradise where their family did no wrong on their 20 plantations and the peasants were just ungrateful for their benevolent rule

[@kozzy18]

Well, it was produced by 20th Century Fox.

[@simona1001]

1920-30:s Germany was filled by emigrant Russian nobility. Among these groups several myths, quite often with anti-semitic themes, were prevalent. Chief among these were the myth of the surviving princess Anastasia, a title claimed by a multitude of women (often sex workers seeking a better life). This story is quite clearly inspired by the stories told in German "Gentlemens clubs" at the time. The depiction of "Rasputin" shares quite a few similarities with the "Jewish sorcerers" in these stories. Also, they formed a significant portion of the inner circle of a certain party led by an Austrian painter. Most famously, the chief ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, born in modern day Estonia. Like a large portion of Russian nobility he spoke German as his first language and had a German name. So one could say this is a story based on (proto-)Nazi myths.

[@АнастасияВасильева-з3ш]

Это звучит как потрясающе Жуткая параллель, учитывая, что косвенные родственники/потомки романовых на самом деле живы сейчас

[@peachesandcream22]

@@АнастасияВасильева-з3ш Не только живы, но и благодаря Православной русской церкви за границей, они канонизировали Романовых как "мучеников" в 80-х. РПЦ до сих пор их так изображает. Я не раз видела других русских, которые очень романтизируют дореволюционную Россию. При этом, по странным причинам, еще и романтизируя Советский Союз🤷

[@АнастасияВасильева-з3ш]

@@peachesandcream22 это может быть похоже на то, как люди ромпнтизирую античность, средневековье и викторианство, хотя эпохи и соответствующие им порядки меняли друг друга и могли иметь противоречия?

[@keltzy]

Anastasia is such a weird movie. I think the story is genuinely good, or would have been if not for the real world context. Kinda wished they'd just gone 100% fantasy with this one. It's not like it has much connection to its inspiration anyway.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Totally! If it was 100% fantasy, I'd still be slightly annoyed with the portrayal of the revolution as being caused entirely by a curse and the pro-monarchy ideology, but it'd be waaay better overall and would at least make more sense

[@matheussanthiago9685]

''it is MY princess fic and I get to set it to ANY time piece I decide, it doesn't have to make sense, it has to look pretty, and also piss off The Mouse'' - Don Bluth, probably

[@youngandrestlessjean3634]

My parents took me to see this movie in theaters when I was 6. I hated it. For some reason, the dead Romonov ghosts appearing to Anna throughout the film gave this kids movie an extrra creepy context throughout that really unnerved me as a young child. Also, I didn't like the grandma character at all. I always thought it was petty that she left Anna lying in the snow during the runaway train scene. Like way to go grandma. The Once Upon A December melody is maybe the only saving grace of this film.

[@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em]

​@@revolutionaryth0t your video has certain historical problems, as you argue that the working class had no reason to disagree or dislike the USSR, but this isnt't true as although there were improvements in the quality of life in comparison to the Empire, there was a lot of social inequality in the USSR. Sovietology expert Mervyn Matthews's 1978 study "Privilege in the Soviet Union" made clear that while the people were given "basics" like bread and meat in the soviet shops, 8 percent of soviet shops accepted "preliminary orders" by members of the nomenklatura and this preliminary orders included food like fillet steaks, lobster and black caviar, which were directly sent to the official's doors twice weekly. The healthcare system in the USSR also had a giant quality gap, something that was made clear by poet and writer Korney Chukovsky, who was treated in a Party Hospital in 1965: "the families of the central committee built for themselves a paradise, all while people in other hospital beds were starving, dirty and without the right drugs". There's also the fact that under stalinism, workers lost many benefits thay were given to them at the beggining of the revolution, like their right to participate in the functioning of the enterprise and conditions deteriorated as shock work, which meant that workers had to work past regular hours, was introduced alongside central planning and after ww2 small theft became illegal among workers. You also mentioned abortion, but forgot to mention that, although legalized in 1920, during the Stalin era, abortion was seen in a bad light, as in the congress of Kiev in 1932 abortion was criticized for decreasing the country's birth rate and natalist policies were introduced.

[@therani9600]

​@@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em she never claimed it was EVERYONE, in the working class who had nothing against the ussr government. She meant it in general, IN GENERAL it's more realistic that people would support the thing that made their lives a bit better. And if not for facts then for propaganda that actually was everywhere. The author of the video doesn't say that EVERYONE liked the soviet government, just that everyone certainly wasn't rooting for monarchy at that time like it's shown in the movie, and explained why. She also didn't claim to be totally historically correct an every instance, she just listed things in this movie that ANYONE who grew up in russia basically can see that aren't historically correct from the first look. She didn't tell anything that isn't public knowledge. Stop trying to pick apart her arguments about the ANIMATED CHILDREN'S MOVIE by pointing at the little inaccuracies in her portrayal of the wrongdoings of the soviet government, which she didn't even claim never happened, that doesn' even disprove the actual claim she makes that the movie is a wrong portrayal of 1920s Russia

[@gingergoddess8953]

The song Ra-Ra-Rasputin was more historically accurate lol

[@ФедяКрюков-в6ь]

Ahaha, 100%

[@prasetyodwikuncorojati2434]

@@ФедяКрюков-в6ь Also for his white bat buddy

[@jcampos002]

This movie is less historically accurate than M Boney's disco song

[@ames-inthe-grass]

lmaooo not M Bony’s 😭😭

[@elendil6144]

That song is a banger though

[@bewilderbeastie8899]

Are you telling me Rasputin wasn't big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow, who to Moscow chicks was such a lovely dear?

[@rumpelstilzz]

You leave Mr Bones alone sir!

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

@@bewilderbeastie8899 That was his cousin, Cooler Rasputin.

[@MrARock001]

That movie is Shen Yun for Russia.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Lmao literally!!

[@ChrisKunix]

Exactly that! I'd say, lol.

[@chriswilliams6896]

TBF, Disney does Historical Fiction with all of their movies. Pocahantas was a real historical figure and daughter of a Native American Chief. She was 14 in real life and John Smith was 30, but They aged her up in the movie to make it a less creepy love interest. She actually married a man named John Rolfe. The name Pocahantas itself is actually a nickname. Also, as an American our ideals on Democracy and self-governance are very strong, but The United States is a Constitutional Republic.

[@kylelundgren5133]

​@@chriswilliams6896It's neither one it's a constitutional oligarchy, With the paper thin veneer of a republic.

[@ninyaninjabrifsanovichthes45]

"Shen Yun: Experience the rich cultural traditions of pre-Communist China" "Anastasia: Experience the rich cultural traditions of Tsarist Russia" "Lost Cause: Experience the rich cultural traditions of antebellum Dixie"

[@nope19568]

tbh i feel the same way about Anastasia as i do Hercules from disney, both wildly historically inaccurate and definitely basically just a historical fanfic but still a fun movie over all with really good musical numbers lol

[@greenamber9827]

Do you mean mythologically accurate for Hercules?

[@crusader-luka]

No

[@nope19568]

@@greenamber9827 yeah that lol

[@nope19568]

@@crusader-luka lol wdym no?

[@idrisa7909]

I think they named the dog "Pooka" after "Púca", a small hairy shapeshifter that can bromg good or bad luck... from Celtic folklore. Wrong region.

[@LamanKnight]

That's only slightly better than naming him after the Pookas, the inflatable enemies from Dig Dug.

[@JohnDRuddyMannyMan]

Another great wrinkle in the zombie Rasputin story is the revolutionaries dug up his body during the Feb Revolution and burned him, and they reported seeing his body sit up in the fire (probably due to contracting uncut tendons).

[@hodarinundu]

Why did they burn him, out of spite, or out of fear he'd rise again? :B

[@Mortablunt]

The Soviets had an obsession with making sure their enemies were truly dead. Hitler though had been shot and then burned, the Soviets redic the job and then threw him into water.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

why'd they exhume him at all, other than the sensationalized manner of his death? honestly just a ghost story, even if they actually did it

[@daydihey3045]

I'm russian, grew up in russia, graduated a few years ago. I was in a "history specialization" class, so it was really funny to me when during one of our english classes our teacher put on Anastasia (1997) in front of the group of a bunch of pretentious teen "history majors". but yeah, it's just a silly fairytale, genuinely have no idea why they even tried to pretend that it had something to do w actual history, but the movie is still super comforting to me lmao 😭

[@dabatman5187]

I think we could acknowledge a movie is inaccurate while also liking it Except for Rasputin being an undead zombie. That historically happened

[@recurvestickerdragon]

it really feels like this entire film originated from somebody reading about Rasputin 's death and extrapolating it into a plot about him being a lich, with everything else shoehorned in to support that single thread

[@dabatman5187]

@@recurvestickerdragon Basically. And they heard the theory of Anastasia still being alive and wrote a Fanfic about it

[@5th_cellar]

@@dabatman5187some of it draws heavily from the 1956 Ingrid Bergman movie

[@onemoreturn]

It's funny how Rasputin is megapissed that a Romanov family member still lives, because despite all of his superpowers he didn't realise that bunch of them have escaped.

[@shr00mski]

I love how smoothly and fluently you go between an English narration with Russian words pronounced correctly. Awesome video

[@HistoryMonarch1999]

I think the Broadway is a little better comparatively since they make it clear the revolution happened because of the Romanovs and they point out why. I gotta emphasize the comparatively

[@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em]

this video has certain historical problems as well, as one of the video's main arguments is that the working class had no reason to disagree or dislike the USSR, but this isnt't true as although there were improvements in the quality of life in comparison to the Empire, there was a lot of social inequality in the USSR. Sovietology expert Mervyn Matthews's 1978 study "Privilege in the Soviet Union" made clear that while the people were given "basics" like bread and meat in the soviet shops, 8 percent of soviet shops accepted "preliminary orders" by members of the nomenklatura and this preliminary orders included food like fillet steaks, lobster and black caviar, which were directly sent to the official's doors twice weekly. The healthcare system in the USSR also had a giant quality gap, something that was made clear by poet and writer Korney Chukovsky, who was treated in a Party Hospital in 1965: "the families of the central committee built for themselves a paradise, all while people in other hospital beds were starving, dirty and without the right drugs". There's also the fact that under stalinism, workers lost many benefits thay were given to them at the beggining of the revolution, like their right to participate in the functioning of the enterprise and conditions deteriorated as shock work, which meant that workers had to work past regular hours, was introduced alongside central planning and after ww2 small theft became illegal among workers. The video also mentioned abortion, but forgot to mention that, although legalized in 1920, during the Stalin era, abortion was seen in a bad light, as in the congress of Kiev in 1932 abortion was criticized for decreasing the country's birth rate and natalist policies were introduced.

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

@@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em If I see you using SOVIETOLOGIST as your source one more time I will recreate KGB with dark magic.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

​@@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944 oh don't mind him, he's just copy pasting this on every comment he can find because "commies bad"

[@mynamejeff3545]

​@@RodrigoGarcia-ze5emThese problems all arose long after the events in the movie, though. I don't think the post-ww2 criminalization of workplace theft has much to do with the fact the early years of the USSR were a massive improvement compared to the Tsarist regime, and that Petrograd's inhabitants were therefore very unlikely to sing and dance about the possible return of Anastasia

[@allyrose9494]

The fact that zombie Rasputin is the most historically accurate part about the movie is fucking wild-

[@sirsteam6455]

Its weird that that part is rather accurate, but his actual character and allegiances are butchered, its crazy

[@brianbrady139]

Another thing that is really funny about this movie is that they ignore the fact that a large amount of the imperial extended family were still alive and that the house of Romanov still exists today

[@piratesswoop725]

Yep, Nicholas’ sisters and their children, and several other grand dukes for some reason.

[@Alexandra_Indina]

Actually there are TWO Houses of Romanovs. The Russian Nobility in Exile still doesn't recognize the so-called dutchess Maria as a legitimate heiress of Tsar Nicolas Romanov, she and her son are basically self-proclaimed "heirs".

[@AdolphusEudora]

Bit they are not the immediate Royal Family. The succession become muddled when Grand Duke Michael (Nick's surviving brother) died heirless hence leaving the House with no clear successor to the claim. Right now, the strongest claimant to the name is a thoroughly British duke...

[@OttO-ringface]

It should be mentioned, at 17:31 the aforementioned cakes, tea, and wine were poisoned with Cyanide, prior to baking. In baking the cakes, the Cyanide was cooked out in the process, rendering it useless. As for the tea and wine, it is rumoured that the cyanide that Yusupov bought was faulty, and thus didn’t work when mixed into the wine and tea. The shot to his chest at 17:41 is a bit vague, but it is possible for people to survive gunshot wounds to the chest, and since he was a bit of a hearty lad hailing from Siberia and all, the wound likely wasn’t fatal. Reports from the surgeon found no water in Rasputins lungs, and this is substantiated by the fact there was a gunshot wound directly to his forehead. I know Couriers in the Mojave might be prone to surviving headshots, but I don’t think Rasputin was running a luck build there. Larger than life guy for sure, but we’ve also gotta remember that the only substantial and accurate accounts of Rasputin’s death come from his assassins, the people who have the most reason to lie and defame Rasputin as much as they could to justify their actions.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

These are some very good points you bring up!

[@mandalorian_guy]

Wouldn't Anastasia saying "do svidaniya" instead of "poka poka" imply she believes she is going to meet up with him in hell (or the afterlife)? It just seems like a weirdly formal farewell to your enemy who killed your family and tried to kill you.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

This comment made me cackle hahaha so true, I guess she knows that that's where the monarchy belongs!

[@Mortablunt]

Well, I don’t think anyone will the crew new in a fraction to say something accurate, and it would’ve gone over pretty poorly to have her say some thing like “Proschai, uyobok blya pizdets!”

[@Painocus]

Iirc it's a call-back to Rasputin saying the same thing when he tried to kill her earlier (and he is intending to drag her to hell). I always took it as sarcastic on her part.

[@mandalorian_guy]

@@Painocus Yeah, I rewatched the scene and he is addressing her formally as he taunts her so it makes sense she would turn it around on him.

[@DaniFromNowOn]

I know I'm reading too much into it but the fact that an entire train full of people falls off a cliff and the "innocent grand duchess" doesn't notice or care feels...more honest than the movie likely intended

[@revolutionaryth0t]

For real though! Not even a "wow I feel bad for the other people who were on that train"!

[@raphaelledesma9393]

If you watch the film again, it wasn't a "train full of people" but the train at the front which was empty (Dmitri went there and there should have been a conductor and someone shoveling coal but there was no one). Rasputin at least kept casualties low by disconnecting the front part (the train and the baggage carriage) from the carriages with people.

[@UbinTimor]

The movie makes it pretty clear that the cars holding the rest of the passengers weren't connected to the runaway train. I don't know why people think that train cars will just keep rolling of their own volition if not being pulled by a train- they won't do that by the way, all of the passengers were fine because the cars would have stopped before they were even close to that bridge due to the break pipes being disconnected once the cars were decoupled from the locamotive. The break pipes being disconnected would cause the rest of the cars to activate their breaks and gradually slow to a stop- if by some unnatural anti-physics mumbo-jumbo the passenger cars kept a consistent speed after those breaks were set each passenger car is equipped with hand breaks that the conductor or any other employee could tighten and bring them to a stop before they would have made it to the bridge. Either way all the passengers were safe by the end of that scene. The engin workers would have bailed after they noticed the locomotive was out of control and the passenger cars were detached- remember the cast was in the baggage car so it wouldn't have been unusual for them to bail at that point because they would have figured that no one would be in there. The only thing that was lost after that scene was the locomotive- and everyone's luggage, I guess.

[@lisaleyendekker8305]

the train's engine, coal carriage, and luggage care fell off the cliff, the rest of the passenger carriages were disconnected earlier and likely slowed to a stop.

[@AsuraKish8n665]

Rasputin in the movie: * An evil wizard that made a deal with the Devil" Rasputin in real Life: "i Just want wine and bit*hes , man!"

[@sierrajohnson717]

I see this story kinda like the way I see King Arthur stories, essentially a fairytale with the actual tiniest sprinkling of irl historical inspo. Disneys Pocahontas also does this, changing P to be older and John Smith to be younger (so their relationship was less gross), and minimizing all the violence if not ignoring parts altogether. Essentially historical fanfiction

[@Letcharlieplay2545]

As someone who likes this movie- i also love to see it dissected for its inaccuracies lol

[@YelenaSkunky]

It feels like the Russian dub really did a great job with the names and such. They actually made it sound like something Russian-like. The movie is kind of nice, but I really despise the way it botches history. Was it really a coincidence that it came out during the time when it was fashionable to mourn Tsar Russia and the sweet sound of French baguette?

[@rosamontano6744]

Always thought it was strange how people yell about historical inaccuracies on Pocahontas when Anastasia is filled with them. It even has weird magic thingies that make even less sense. But i guess when it hits home it hits harder? Btw the ending of this movie never made truly sense to me. Anastasia is not a monarch. Dimitri doesnt have a job. Just stay in Paris with the people you love anyway and start from zero. Why the f would you go back to the place you wanted to get away from. What life awaits them in Russia afterwards? Its dumb.

[@RodrigoGarcia-ze5em]

this video has certain historical problems as well, as one of the video's main arguments is that the working class had no reason to disagree or dislike the USSR, but this isnt't true as although there were improvements in the quality of life in comparison to the Empire, there was a lot of social inequality in the USSR. Sovietology expert Mervyn Matthews's 1978 study "Privilege in the Soviet Union" made clear that while the people were given "basics" like bread and meat in the soviet shops, 8 percent of soviet shops accepted "preliminary orders" by members of the nomenklatura and this preliminary orders included food like fillet steaks, lobster and black caviar, which were directly sent to the official's doors twice weekly. The healthcare system in the USSR also had a giant quality gap, something that was made clear by poet and writer Korney Chukovsky, who was treated in a Party Hospital in 1965: "the families of the central committee built for themselves a paradise, all while people in other hospital beds were starving, dirty and without the right drugs". There's also the fact that under stalinism, workers lost many benefits thay were given to them at the beggining of the revolution, like their right to participate in the functioning of the enterprise and conditions deteriorated as shock work, which meant that workers had to work past regular hours, was introduced alongside central planning and after ww2 small theft became illegal among workers. The video also mentioned abortion, but forgot to mention that, although legalized in 1920, during the Stalin era, abortion was seen in a bad light, as in the congress of Kiev in 1932 abortion was criticized for decreasing the country's birth rate and natalist policies were introduced.

[@annabelcunningham2848]

Maybe bc Pocahontas is from Disney and glorifies genocide. It still makes money from selling merch to young girls wanting representation. It also has led to SO many native women having to listen to ppl callinf them Pocahontas, a woman who was kidnapped from her husband and child and died soon after being paraded around England. Anastasia is disrespectful and inaccurate with weird politics, but I believe it is less of a stain on the public perception of Russia.

[@hodarinundu]

How do we know they went back to Russia?

[@rosamontano6744]

@@hodarinundu good point.

[@theladyprincess]

for some reason, and maybe it's because i've read more extensively on the romanovs a few years back, i tend to notice or go full on 'oops! that did not happen' mode with anastasia more than pocahontas (i still love both movies tho). i also have issues with the broadway adaptation but that's a whole other story already i guess lol

[@kat764]

this video appearing on my homepage feels so weirdly timed because I recently saw a local rendition of the Anastasia musical with a friend, lol. I feel like it puts into words the weird vibes i got from the musical (mostly surrounding historical inaccuracies/ exaggerations of the time period) , but didnt really have the context to put it into words. Love the video!

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Thank you!! And wow very serendipitous timing haha!

[@metanoiia_]

"they dont want farts in the house"

[@joyofcookies]

I think you hit the nail on the head with the fact that anything America does in portrayal of the USSR “has” to be negative. We can never acknowledge that anything socialist/communist is effective in any way; because if I have to pay my employees fair wages, then how will I be able to keep my McMansion made of Porsches and Rolexes!?! Also, In the “Have You Heard?” Song they talk about gossip that gets them through the day, not that they wish the nobility was in charge again. I always interpreted that as it’s just fun to have juicy gossip to share during a boring job. Like when I hear something about the “real housewives” shows or the kardashians, I don’t watch them or approve but when something big enough happens for me to hear about it; I’ll gab about it and make judgements and whatnot! 😅

[@McHobotheBobo]

It's because communism is literally an unstoppable tide of being objectively correct, can't have people learning the truth under capitalism!

[@ShinigamiInuyasha777]

I always felt that it was so bizarre how a country that was founded on a rebellion against a monarchy inmediatly sides with the monarchs in every revolution since (french, russian and so on)

[@joyofcookies]

@@ShinigamiInuyasha777 the monarchs of OTHER countries are easier to work with/control/exploit than a more convoluted government body. Especially when a king is exploiting his peasants which means their exports are cheaper for us. If the working class revolts they’ll want fair wages which means their exports will cost US more, and we can’t be apart of that kind of communist nonsense.

[@greasher926]

@@ShinigamiInuyasha777 it’s because in those revolutions it was the working class that overthrew the monarchy, while in the US it was the wealthy landowners.

[@ShinigamiInuyasha777]

@@greasher926 Im not from the US. Can you explain further?

[@yieeeeeeeeeeeeee]

america on french revolution: 😍🙌 america on russian revolution: 👹 also despite this movie contributes great nostalgia on my childhood, growing up and eventually learning about the realities of this part of history has made me cringe overtime on how far they would go as to bend and disrespect history like that just to pettily demonize red politics.

[@yieeeeeeeeeeeeee]

@@ZIEMOWITIUS 💀

[@yieeeeeeeeeeeeee]

@@ZIEMOWITIUS 💀🤡💀🤡💀🎉

[@yieeeeeeeeeeeeee]

@@ZIEMOWITIUS🎉 🎪💀🤡💀🤡💀🤣💀🤣💀🤡🤣💀🤣🤡🎪🎉

[@yieeeeeeeeeeeeee]

@@ZIEMOWITIUS nah 🎉🤣🤡💀🎉🤣🎪🎪💀🎉🤣🎪💀💀

[@eleonorepb4565]

​@@ZIEMOWITIUSyou can move to India if you want

[@sciencefictionisreal1608]

My big hang up is why they named the bat Bartok, after a Hungarian, when there are plenty of other contemporary Russian composers they could have named him after. I guess they didn't think the American kids could pronounce Prokofiev?

[@revolutionaryth0t]

How wild! I don't think a train route from St. Petersburg to Paris would even go through Switzerland lol

[@ColumineMiette]

Maybe pushkin would have worked better

[@waltersobchak471]

I've always thought that giving Rasputin's bat the same name as Béla Bartók was just accidental. In the Hungarian dub, he is named BartEk, I guess to avoid confusion with the composer. 😅

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

Seriously, was I the only one who grew up knowing Hungarians aren't Slavic? Also, not sure if this is even dumber, but... growing up, I thought they were a *Germanic* people. Don't ask me how; I guess it just made sense to me as a kid, given they're right next to Austria.

[@FurTheWorkers]

Learning about the revolution from Anastasia: Aww, that's so sad for the sweet family. Learning about the revolution from history: The basement should have been dirtier.

[@gaylorvader]

Jesus christ dog😂 i need to learn more Russian history cause i didn’t realize they were THAT bad.

[@sfjuhispst8144]

The kids never deserved to get shot. Kids in general should not get shot. Mind you, I'm not a fan of Nick II "forced cultural integration sounds like the best option I have" myself, but at least the youngest members of the family cannot have held responsible for anything really.

[@Andrey_Gysev]

​@@gaylorvaderI remember when 1905 revolution happened - monarch ordered to make a penalty train that literally travelled by railroad and on each stop they killed people without reason. The journalist investigation at that time showed a story of one of that stops when they randomly chosen a house, broke the door and shot a man and stabbed his wife with bayonets and left to train again. They were literally terrorizing russia to make people obey in frightening.

[@Mortablunt]

The town truly bad imperial Russia was run is something that genuinely kept out of our history lessons. Where does Todd basically nothing about Russia apart from the foundational stuff and then suddenly they turn Soviet and the communist are all evil because they like did that for no reason.

[@mhairibrown4957]

Nicholas and Alexandra were awful but I still mourn the children because imagine being killed so brutally for your parent’s crimes. Nicholas should never have been allowed to rule and Alexandra had her head in the clouds 99.9% of the time but those children were so sheltered from what was actually going on outside in the real world that I don’t think they could ever be to blame for the circumstances that led to their deaths. The Bolsheviks clearly just wanted to ensure that none of them lived long enough to be able to make a claim for the throne in the future.

[@antoniolanzo4392]

The performance shown during the scene at the Opera is supposed to be the ballet “Cinderella” by Sergei Prokofiev, which is another historical inaccuracy on its own, since Prokofiev’s ballet had its premiere in Moscow by the end of 1945 and only 3 years later it would first be seen outside of the Soviet Union!

[@revolutionaryth0t]

This is such a fun fact!!

[@deedreamerify]

The version of Anastasia I grew up watching had talking instrument versions of her family It was ridiculous I loved it so much

[@theoddbox]

The Secret of Anastasia? I love running into other people who grew up on weird bootleg kids movies

[@deedreamerify]

@@theoddbox lol yes! That's what it was called! In the sun and Prince Charmless pass through my mind on a regular basis 😅

[@theoddbox]

@@deedreamerify they also did "the secret of the hunchback of Notre Dame" where the secret is that Quasimodo has wings(?)

[@zacharyriley4561]

​@@theoddbox Didn't they make the one that had Quasimodo be super handsome but everyone acted like he was ugly and their version of frollo was just Gaston of a curly mustache and was Quasimodo's brother?

[@theoddbox]

@@zacharyriley4561 I believe you're thinking of the goldenfilms hunchback. The one I remember made him ugly but I do know the one you're talking about.

[@adamthethird4753]

Capitalists when making this movie: “Come my minions! Rise for your Master!”

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Literally though hahaha

[@ironic_normalcy5409]

I feel like the "Enya" nickname was intentional, since the artist Enya was super famous back in the 90s. Except she was Irish, not Russian.

[@Mortablunt]

She is also the woman who does the wordless vocals in the Lord of the Rings movies.

[@recurvestickerdragon]

I... feel like it's pretty clear who they were riffing on, yes. Enya has been part of pop culture for a long while

[@Alexandra_Indina]

But... the nickname was Ania. And that was about time when Anna Kurnikova started to rise to her fame...

[@mariathompson5104]

iirc Don Bluth went into the movie wanting to make it historically accurate, but the more research he did the more he realized it wouldn’t fit a kids movie

[@carlosangel9404]

I really liked this movie when I was young, mostly cause of the music. Now that I'm older, I realize that this was basically pro-monarchy, anti-communist propaganda, like most musicals. Music still slaps, though.

[@n.j.hanson4267]

About the same time this movie came out, there was a cash grab mock buster that, strangely, was slightly more historically accurate. The villains were the Russian secret police searching for possible royalty or royal sympathizers, and Anastasia’s grandmother lived in Copenhagen.

[@hodarinundu]

Is this the one with the magical instruments who were Anastasia's family reincarnated? And the sharp toothed soviet agent disguised as a bird-loving prince? :B

[@n.j.hanson4267]

@@hodarinundu that's the one. I said slightly.

[@fbjkatsuu]

Great video! I am suddenly very curios as to why Don Bluth decided to make this film. It's like trying to synthesize the popular Disney Princess formula with the super popular Titanic's aesthetics or something.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

That's a very apt way of describing it! That makes sense given that sooo many popular Disney princess movies came out in the 90s and Fox probably wanted to capitalize on that trend. Also I just googled it and apparently Titanic only came out two weeks before Anastasia! I guess the "rich girl falls in love with poor guy" trope was just on filmmaker's minds at the time?

[@Thot_Patrol_USA]

fox wanna be disney so bad oh wait they ARE disney now. mission success?

[@matheussanthiago9685]

Don Bluth works in mysterious ways

[@n.j.hanson4267]

When Fox Animation got Don Bluth on board to make movies, he was offered two options: adapt My Fair Lady, or adapt Anastasia.

[@piratesswoop725]

The Romanovs grave had been (re)found a few years earlier and with the fall of the Soviet Union, a lot of state archives were opened up and a lot of new information about the family came out. Hugh Brewster had released a children’s nonfiction book called Anastasia’s Album the year prior too so a lot of kids were introduced to the Romanovs.

[@roguetamlin]

There's so much wrong with the movie historically I give you props for even trying to fit it all into one video.

[@mikeor-]

36:00: In 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved, and their last Emperor died in exile four years later. However, his son, Otto von Habsburg, was referred to as His Royal Highness until 1955. That was when he formally renounced all his Imperial titles, and starting in 1956, he was known as Herr Doktor Otto von Habsburg until his death in 2011. However, he still used his Imperial titles for thirty-three years after his father died. So it wouldn't surprise me that, since Anastasia never renounced her royal titles in this movie, she would still be referred to as "Your Imperial Highness."

[@teodorasavoiu4664]

Romanian royals (who are mostly German and live abroad but whatever) still keep their titles to this day, even though the king abdicated 80 years ago and no one else from that family was ever crowned. Even Romanian press still calls them by their titles even though we live in a republic, it's ridiculous. But I guess it's not so uncommon.

[@HeavenlyEchoVirus]

There’s actually a bit of general contention about this given questions about Nicholas’s abdication for himself AND for his son, but after the abdication the family was referred to everywhere without titles and from what I recall in their diaries and such, there didn’t seem to be a big hang up about keeping them.

[@aivarizhtml]

It’s so weird as a Russian to listen to another Russian talking about Russian history in excellent English. Thank you for bringing the light to English-speaking audience!

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Thank you!! I've lived in the US for the majority of my life so my English is significantly better than my Russian at this point haha

[@republicempire446]

As a historian who studied much of the Cold War, The Soviet Union is technically a socialist state, not communist given by definition. To be honest, it did improved the lives of the Russian people until the leadership did got corrupted by the political power they weld. The legacy of the Cold War does exist in the film which show the Communist party was oppressive but there has been General Secretaries like Krushev was more reasonable and Stalin (despite his iron-fist rule) did push for greater industrialization. The whole negative view on Soviet Union was a byproduct of American and Western paranoia view of Communism. Besides the Soviet leaders weren’t interested to start WWIII because they knew the dangers of Nuclear weapons but they did had a war scare of 1983. Your video is spot on as why historical view on Soviet Union should not be black and white perspective.

[@Ксавиор36]

"the leadership got corrupted" you mean Khrushchev couped the supreme Soviet after Stalins death and established him and his cronies power and re-established capitalism in the Soviet Union? Not Stalin who actually fought against the bureaucracy and tried many democratic Reforms?

[@whtalt92]

@@Ксавиор36 Reforms such as purges?

[@alexcaplan9271]

I LOVE the movie for it's animation. I LOVE that you're roasting it. I LOVE the history lesson. In the dark of the night is a BANGER! I still HATE the fact that people, including the royal family had to die for things to change for Russia.

[@michellelamar8965]

HAD to die? That's extremely debatable and a twisted mindset, or simply a poor choice of words. See: American Revolution where King George III and all his immediate daily were left unharmed, and an entirely new government was formed.

[@troyschulz2318]

28:00 The reason they’re in Paris is because the script is LOOSELY based on a 1956 film (also called ANASTASIA) that’s in turn loosely based on the Anna Anderson story. That film was set in Paris, mostly because it was home to a lot of White Emigrés post-Revolution, and the scam was originally targeting a whole bunch of White exiles, not just Maria Feodorovna.

[@vladislavshevchenko634]

12:33 with due respect, life expectancy of 35 doesn't make a 40 year old person an "old hag" about 30% of kids in the Russian empire died before the age of 1 and 70% of people died before puberty because of absence of medical care, but those who survived till their 20's were genetically with a very stong immune system and could expect to live into their 60's. Life expectancy is an average. If 50 people live for 10 years and 50 people live for 50 years, their live expectancy is (1x50+50x50):100= 30 years.

[@FinalSeraphLeo]

Everytime they start singing about missing the Czar, my response is "are you trying to get shot?"

[@Closurenomore]

The secret police " Who wants to see people disappear?"

[@cherry_preppy]

A video about my hyper-fixation since 9 years old?? LETS GOOOOOO!!!!

[@snesfan8935]

Данный мультфильм это кринж по отношению к истории России. Видя данное "творение" тогда в конце 90ых я испытывал диссонанс, спрашивая себя "что здесь вообще происходит?". Короче говоря ещё одна Американская Клюква.

[@Alexandra_Indina]

Да ладно, будем честны: глубинные русские оценивают всех американцев по голливудским фильмам, и вовсе даже не по тем, что оскары получают, а гораздо более низкого качества. И герои которых не имеют ничего общего со среднестатистическим американцем и его образом жизни. В конце концов, штаты "христианского пояса" существуют, но у нас в голове образы жителей исключительно киношного Нью-Йорка. Так что в соревновании по кринжу счет пока 1:1, и матч продолжается😂

[@rubybarron4885]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS FOR YEARS AND NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT

[@geodude205]

Didn't you know that Lenin commanded that every dog in Russia should be named Fart? Just one of many unhumane laws of the Soviet regime 😢

[@NotevenTony]

To be fair to Nicholas, he didn’t order Bloody Sunday, and was in a completely different city However, his and Alexandra’s diaries reveal that he didn’t really care that much either way, or come out to hear the demands of his people, who were marching with small children and icons. So still bad.

[@orionbarnes1733]

I think I figured out what happened: the writer of this movie only knew the USSR from how it was under Stalin, and assumed that it had been like that the entire time. They somehow never realized that the revolutions happened because the population was largely *against* the royal family, and just assumed that one guy with wacky facial hair painted a hammer and sickle on the flag and made the country a horrible place to live, while in reality the hammer and sickle were already on the flag when a different guy who also had wacky facial hair made the country a horrible place to live.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Yup that sounds about right!!

[@kindlingking]

The writer also likely has no idea how USSR was under Stalin beyond western propaganda.

[@AdolphusEudora]

When Nikita Khrushchev who became Stalin's successor said that Stalin was bad, what is there to question it?

[@themanformerlyknownascomme777]

I mean. Even if they did know the difference. Any depiction of the Russian revolution in a positive light would have caused the movie to be burned at the stake by both the rest of Hollywood and the wider (fully indoctrinated) public.

[@MatthewJamesMullin]

I love this video. The part where Anastasia names her dog Fart sounds like the most realistic thing. You have heard how people name pets, right?

[@ARCtheCartoonMaster]

As Nostalgia Critic pointed out in his review of _The Magic Voyage_ (a *godawful* animated movie about Christopher Columbus made by some German company), Americans can't even get their own history right with _Pocahontas,_ so it's no surprise they'll botch up other countries' history in a similar manner.

[@ZachariahtheMessiah]

Enya: mood music compilation from 90s commercials

[@richietozier7091]

say what you will about the historical accuracy, but you cannot deny that Jim Cummings put his whole Rasputussy into "In the Dark of the Night"

[@piratesswoop725]

noooo lol Raspussy was RIGHT THERE 😂

[@hodarinundu]

Wait... wasn´t that Christopher Lloyd at least for most of it? D:

[@corngreaterthanwheat]

Now I kinda want the fun, musical version of Russian Civil War where Lennon has, like, the power of flight for some reason and Trotsky breakdances.

[@Alexandra_Indina]

Lennon or Lenin?😂😂😂

[@eggballo4490]

The engine pulling that train wasn't even Russian, it was a Swiss design.

[@ShinGhidorah17]

Exactly. It was a Swiss 2-6-2 tank locomotive heavily modified to resemble a Russian tender locomotive.

[@Salamon2]

Half this film was a remake of a 1956 Ingrid Bergman film that was a fictionalization of Anna Anderson's life story. The other half was just Don Bluth giving up and trying to follow the Disney Renaissance formula.

[@YaBoiHakim]

Great video!

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Omg thank you! Your Aladdin video vaguely inspired the existence of this video!!

[@paceycookson890]

As someone who is married to a Russian and loves to study Russian and Eastern European history I have always found this movie's inaccuracies as being both funny but also infuriating. I understand it was made for children and is a special movie to my wife who grew up with the Russian Dub of it, but still they could've tried to actually be more accurate. I guess I'm not surprised as the only positive media from the west about Russia is always about the Russian monarchy and how it was so mysterious. As an American and freedom lover the last thing we need to do is worship monarchs since we fought for freedom from them.

[@paceycookson890]

P.S. i wish for a day where people are actually free from authoritarian control in Russia and for everyone around the world to be able to see Russia for what it is, a beautiful country with amazing people and culture. Also Ирония Судьбы and Иван Васильевич меняет профессию are amazing and hilarious movies. 🌹🇰🇼🇺🇦

[@nekipeh7373]

I suppose you could watch Russian Revolution by Oversimplified if you want history lesson, wacky comedy and cartoony animation! Also, there was a joke which goes tie in to *St Peterburg?* part that my father used to say about Russian applying for job: he gets questioned by employee searcher with 4 questions: "Where were you born?", "Where did you finish school?", "Where did you finish army?" and "Where do you live at the moment?", only for Russian to respond with: St Petersburg, Petrovgrad, Leningrad, St Petersburg.

[@Ксавиор36]

Oversimplified gets the Russian Revolution very wrong.

[@Polavianus]

​@@Ксавиор36 How exactly?

[@nasty9305]

as russian; love that u also cant let the accent go when saying names. I feel a lot less stupid now.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Haha it's so hard to say certain words and names without the accent, it feels like my mouth won't let me!

[@chaucernerd1690]

My sister listened to me ranting about how inaccurate this show is more than a few times. I’m glad the algorithm led me to you. I enjoyed this. Thank you!

[@jilliansmaniotto2326]

12:23 … that’s not at all what that stat means. the reason the average was so low was because of the insanely high infant mortality rates in that time. also. a 25 year old was absolutely not considered even remotely “middle aged” and it was not crazy for a noble woman to still be unmarried at 25.

[@ragdollrose2687]

I know it's highly inaccurate, but I was OBSESSED with this movie as a young child and it's still one of my favorites. At least, it made me interested in learning about Russian history Monarchy bad, but the individuals behind historical events are fascinating (that doesn't mean they were good people tho)

[@sirsteam6455]

Fascinating and very complex, especially with history morality quickly fades into grays, and given how deep the Russian revolutions and political system go around the time this movie set, its weird they chose to make it.

[@federicomachado811]

​@@sirsteam6455Take you relativism and bad attempta at trying to defend monarchs and aristocrats and bug off.

[@sirsteam6455]

@@federicomachado811 You learn nothing if you only focus on what validates your own biases. Being a realist and accepting historical relativity does not equate to support for something but can be used to understand the circumstances around complex situations. I could have easily dismissed everything due to "communism bad" but I am not so vain to dismiss an entire ideology and its philosophy on a whim

[@peachesandcream22]

As a Russian, I think the main reason why this movie exists is because Don Bluth had undending beefs with Disney (cause he was their ex-animator) and he wanted to create some media which would be as a rival to Disney Princesses section, but not something too familiar to the American audience. And judging the fact that deceased Mr. Bluth was American, he had little to no knowledge about Russia except American "cranberry" movies with "evil Reds" and hypersexualized "Honey Trap" women (oof). He actually based his movie on the existing movie about fake Anastasia, Anna Anderson (as you addressed in the video), called "Anastasia" (yes), filmed in 1956. You can see a lot of similarities, comparing to 1956 life-action movie. I watched this movie multiple times and I knew since my childhood, that "Anastasia" was very inaccurate to Russian history, but I generally ignored that, cause let's be honest, the animation is FANTASTIC and the soundtrack is magical. I liked Anastasia as a character and I liked that Dmitriy was a "Jerk with a Heart of Gold", even if the romance between each other was not that great. Don Bluth Animation created one of my favourite childhood movies, "All Dogs Go to Heaven", so I technically forgave them for "Anastasia" :D But yeah, "Anastasia" and its success (nearly 140 million dollars collected) shows how Americans are SO alienated and distanced from the outside world, that they are ready to feed on any inaccuracy they see. Russians aren't the only people which were badly portrayed in American media. Just look on the majority of American movies about Asians, Africans and even Western Europeans. They all suffer from insulting (and often dehumanizing) stereotypes from American perspective. Also, as I remember, the movie received pretty neutral reaction in Russia and the only people I know who were really mad on this movie were either actual historians or really religious Orthodox Russians, who canonized Romanovs as "martyrs" in 1981, and saw "Anastasia" as the "insult" to their religion.

[@sawsanalh2802]

Not gonna lie, naming the dog fart gives the movie a new dimension that's kinda awesome.

[@Highice007]

This was very informative. Would love to see your take on the movie "Enemy At the Gates"

[@hispanicwitch4929]

You know Anastasia is bad when the Spanish youtubers Pascu y Rodri, in their series Destripando la Historia, made a 3 minute song about Anastasia Romanova which is more historically accurate despite being an obvious satire. Excellent video.

[@TheSci-fiAnarchist42]

Lol, this movie is so inaccurate it makes Disney's Pocahontas look like a historical documentary by comparison. 😂

[@morningstarcollective4671]

I would honestly name a dog fart. I am not allowed to name pets.

[@waltonsmith7210]

Are you telling me there WASNT a zombie sorcerer and talking bats running around the 1920s Soviet Union? Mind blown. I cant believe this movie exists. I cant believe they thought this was a good idea. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?! I wouldve preferred a story where Anastasia becomes a committed Bolshevik. Comrade Anastasia. Btw I think Once Upon A December is a better song than it has any right to be. Also I dont get the lines and shortages thing because its not like we dont stand in line under capitalism. Ive also heard the shortages were worse in the late USSR because of the revisionists fucking up the country and not necessarily characteristic of earlier periods. For instance the famous pictures of empty store shelves are from the Gorbachev years. Theres so many consumer goods I wish i could purchase but dont have the money so there may as well be a shortage as far as Im concerned😂

[@LuLu98J]

I had never watched this movie growing up, but when my best friend found out that I, someone who for the last couple years have been studying marxism leninism (i.e. am a "commie"), never watched this, she said we had to watch it because I would get so pissed about the anti-communist propaganda in it. And let me tell you, I did not expect to watch a pro-tsarist princess movie from the 90s with subtle girlboss vibes... Of course the blatantly obvious fallacious anti-communism annyoed me, but so did EVERYTHING else in the movie 😂😂 It is low key satisfactory to learn that the dog's name in russian could be translated to fart-a, it just shows how dumb the whole thing is.

[@MarxinRios]

The world needs more revolutionaries. ❤

[@sirsteam6455]

One may want to exercise caution when throwing around a word that can encompass many many different principles of thought, or be more specific.

[@MarxinRios]

@@sirsteam6455 marxist leninist revolutionaries.

[@DerekSpeareDSD]

ha! I get the Channel name now...revolutionaryth0t is really Revolutionary Thought! You are very smart...хитрая лиса ты!

[@revolutionaryth0t]

🦊

[@AspelShuyin]

Okay but what about Rasputin Must Die! the final chapter of the Pathfinder Reign of Winter Adventure Path, where Rasputin is also involved in the Bolshevik Revolution and the player characters, from Golarion, have to fight their way through modern soldiers to reach the monastery where Rasputin has kidnapped Baba Yaga. Also Rasputin is the son of Baba Yaga, who is a Pathfinder character where Paizo decided to just go "yeah, I guess she's just the literal real world folklore figure". Also Anastasia is Rasputin's daughter (and Baba Yaga's granddaughter) and becomes the queen of Irrisen. Also there's the Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia, where the Tsar had a magical staff from the precursor race that created humanity. Nikolai Tesla experimenting on it is what caused the Tunguska Explosion. But also Anastasia survived the November Revolution and then gets the memories of a Chinese Assassin.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Lol those both sound so wild!!

[@sapphiredragon5152]

I understood both these references 😢

[@DirectorWestfield]

I know many others have debunked this movie (even a US military historian) but would you even consider doing another one of these historical inaccuracies for “Enemy at the Gates”?

[@Abjectbutterfly]

Are you telling me Vladimir Lennon had actual ideas of his own 😱that would start the revolution and that he wasn’t influenced by an evil wizard

[@joyofcookies]

No, no. Anya (Meg Ryan) ACTUALLY says “dass-vee-dawnya!” Even the most linguistically challenged person in my community college Russian language classes could’ve enunciated it better.😂

[@jinclay4354]

Great video, comrade. 14:50 - I'd just like to clarify that no revolution is peaceful. As much as I'd love to be able to just ask the bourgeoisie and the fascists to stop, they always respond resistance with violence. For example, the Russian "Civil" War (quotes because the country was invaded by external forces) itself. Or basically the conflicts during almost every socialist/anticolonial revolution ever, both the victorious and the defeated ones. Ireland. U.S.S.R. Iran. Finland. Canada. Germany. Hungary. Netherlands. Luxembourg. Italy. Mongolia. El Salvador. China. Brazil. Spain. Yugoslavia. Philippines. Albania. Bulgaria. Vietnam. Korea. India. Malaysia and Singapore. Indonesia. Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Cuba. Algeria. Laos. Guatemala. Angola. Nicaragua. Congo. Colombia. Mozambique. Thailand. U.S. (yes, even they had militant communists who bravely fought for socialism and were brutally murdered for that). Palestine. Bolivia. Turkey. Chile. Portugal. Ethiopia. Afghanistan. Burkina Faso. Nepal. Myanmar. And several others I may have missed. We must reject unnecessary violence, but if the bourgeoisie and the imperialists threaten the people, we must not hesitate to defend the oppressed. Our comrades did not fall in vain, and next time we must not lose.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Oh yes I absolutely agree with everything you said!! That's why I made sure to say that the revolution was ~nearly~ bloodless - because while the Bolsheviks absolutely rejected unnecessary violence and the majority of the actions leading up to the revolution were nonviolent ones, we know that when it comes to making great changes in favor of the people, the ruling class absolutely won't just step aside and let the working class take power just because they asked nicely.

[@jinclay4354]

@@revolutionaryth0t You're awesome. Great work, comrade.

[@obamabiden]

there were also a lot of other groups involved with the first of the two russian revolutions, they were not intially the majority party, but it's kinda of a technicality as obviously the whole thing was a titanic mess and there was a second revolution shortly after, so it didn't end up really mattering

[@kawadashogo8258]

This realization was one of the things that ultimately turned me into a communist. I found that the more I learned about history and the kind of violence the capitalists wield against the working people whenever they don't get their way, or even just in the course of daily existence (especially in the US where cops shoot civilians every day of the year), the less I could make myself care about the "violence" of Lenin and Stalin, because the more I felt that the enemies of the working class are so incredibly violent that it's just naive to expect revolution to be peaceful. When you're too peaceful, you get the Allende treatment, the fascist coup of 1973 in Chile. What was Stalin supposed to do? When you learn the kinds of things Stalin was up against, the encirclement of the USSR by capitalist and fascist powers, the terrorism of the Trotskyites and Bukharinites, the threat of German and Japanese spies in the country, the White Guard remnants who survived the civil war and then committed sabotage against industry, the kulak terrorism against the collective farms (burning crops, destroying farm machinery, murdering Communist Party members who were trying to organize the peasants, having the church tell peasants not to plant food because Stalin was the antichrist), then the Nazi invasion itself, and then even after Nazi Germany was defeated the Soviets had to deal with an extremely bellicose US that had a nuclear monopoly... When you learn all this, you start to wonder just what exactly Stalin was supposed to do, what would any of us do in Stalin's shoes? The fact is that revolution is war, class war, and in war you either fight back or you die and all your achievements for the people get destroyed. It's easy to pass judgements with the benefit of decades of hindsight (and lots of anti-communist propaganda), but imagine being Stalin in the 1930s and you're facing Hitler in the west and Hirohito in the east and you have an underdeveloped country that you're trying to develop as rapidly as possible so it has even the slightest chance of survival, and you have to deal with all these counterrevolutionaries within your borders and fascists outside your borders that all want nothing more in the world than to destroy the revolution at any price. Eventually I found that I had no more fucks to give about the "violence" of comrade Stalin. Sure he made some mistakes, but who among us wouldn't make mistakes in a life or death struggle that we have no way of seeing the end result of, while faced with something like Adolf Hitler? Perfect people don't exist. The important thing is that Stalin was a genuine workers' revolutionary who spent his whole life defending workers' power and resisting those who wanted to destroy it.

[@jinclay4354]

@@kawadashogo8258 I couldn't have worded it better, comrade. Agitate, educate, and organize.

[@lazarlapac5103]

To be fair, I am not saying these would be fully historically accurate but this movie does have moments that prove they did a bit of their homework. A good example would be supposed Anastasia's drawing, which was actually her sister's.

[@helliumballoons7546]

The only people I feel bad for in the Romanov family are the kids. They had to pay for their parents’ wrongdoings, and their lives were taken too soon.

[@katyatheruski]

I'm also Russian, and always thought this was weird. I loved the movie though.

[@gingercatqueen4368]

Oooh I just found your channel. I’m loving this. 💜 I did learn a lot of new things. I have vague memories of this movie and just remember not liking it. And didn’t understand why it became a popular movie (later) for my friends to watch in high school.

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Thank you!!! I didn't even watch this movie until I was an adult because even as a kid I was like, there's no way this movie portrays Russians in a way I'd enjoy and I was correct haha. I honestly have no clue how this movie is as popular as it is. I mean, it's definitely entertaining and aesthetically kinda nice and the pacing is good, which I guess is all it takes to get an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes??

[@Letcharlieplay2545]

@@revolutionaryth0t I think it's a mix of good art, a fun story (Outside of the weird portrayal of the revolution), and good music that does it for me. I never considered it remotely historically accurate but rather more akin to a fairytale with the names of real people and places pasted on.

[@saucetail]

Loved this video! The first time I watched Anastasia like two years ago, my favorite part (aside from the gorgeous animation) was nitpicking the historical facts, so having this video recommended to me was awesome lol… I’m definitely subbed now :^]

[@blueicechii]

Zombie Rasputin making more sense then the rest of the movie is insane

[@JohnDRuddyMannyMan]

Excellent video :)

[@butterflylatte3079]

Fun(?) Fact: Don Bluth and his crew DID do extensive research on Russia, the Romanovs, etc... They just decided to actively ignore most of it. The artists interviewed for the art book straight up admit this, mentioning among other things how they were told what Grandmama was like in real life and saying "Well, that's not going to work for our fairy tale movie."

[@revolutionaryth0t]

Haha well that makes a lot of sense! That's a very fun fact

[@AnthonyChinaski]

New RevTh0t dropped honey!

[@revolutionaryth0t]

[@bills-beard]

this is the takedown ive been waiting over 20yrs for tysm

[@comradethatmetalguy]

I read that during the photoSHOOT, Anastasia was slow to die because the absurd amount of jewelry she was wearing acted as a bulletproof vest. Tragic, comic? It depends on each person to decide.

[@piratesswoop725]

The three younger daughters and the son, yes. The boy was shot in the ear and the girls were eventually beaten and bayoneted.

[@mhairibrown4957]

Actually all of the daughters were slower to be killed because they had sewn jewels into their corsets to hide them. Nicholas was first to die because almost every shooter aimed at him at first. The girls were later beaten and bayoneted to death to the point that their bones in their faces were severely fractured. It made putting their skulls back in place very difficult when the bodies were discovered

[@qt.Miss_Rose]

Anastasias grandmother was never in Paris but in Denmark, she was the only Romanov sister who was never into romance